8 New Apps You Should Know

Instead of wading through the massive amount of new app releases searching for a few diamonds in the rough, just let us be your guide. This is a collection of our favorite new apps for both iOS and Android for your downloading pleasure.

If you’re anything like us, you can’t get enough Clarkson, Hammond and May. DRIVETRIBE is “an experiential platform by fans, for fans” that was dreamed up by everyone’s three favorite British car guys to give you access to cars, bikes, racers, drifters, classics and supercars from over 1,500 different tribes across the world. In case that doesn’t make sense, Jezza said it best: “I didn’t understand DRIVETRIBE until Richard Hammond said it was like YouPorn, only with cars.” That should be all the explanation you need. iOS | Android

The New York Times crossword needs no explanation, but the digital version of the crossword is chock full of features you won’t get in the version you actually have to scribble on. For starters, the NYTimes Crossword app gives you the same puzzle that will appear in tomorrow’s paper the night before so you can get a jump on it. But the app also has mini puzzles, themed puzzle packs and access to over two decades of classic puzzles from the archives. Like the normal New York Times crossword, it’s equally challenging, infuriating, satisfying and tricky. And now, it’s finally available on Android. iOS | Android

Sir David Attenborough’s Story of Life chronicles over six decades of highlights from more than 40 BBC programs including Planet Earth, Blue Planet, The Life of Mammals and Africa over the course of more than one thousand of the greatest wildlife moments ever filmed. Sir David Attenborough could narrate the phone book and we’d pay attention, so it should come as no surprise that the most comprehensive collection of his work ever released online is especially enthralling. iOS | Android

Whether you’re looking to relive the glory days of the darkroom or experience them for the first time, Darkr will transport you to place where you can do things the good old fashioned way… kind of. You’ll have to select your black and white images from negative strips, pick individual lighting adjustments, and manually dodge and burn light they did back in the day. In other words, Darkr lets you control your photos like you’re editing real film with the convenience of touch and a complete lack of chemicals or equipment other than what you’re holding in your hand. iOS

No holiday would be complete without a Christmas themed game of some sort, and Blocky XMAS is here to fill that void this year. The objective is simple enough: use your magnetic powers as the star of the tree to assemble a tree Santa would approve of in the dotted lines in the level. Actually making that happen is a lot less simple once you get to the higher levels and start working with blocks of multiple sizes. It’s kind of like Tetris combined with one of those sliding block puzzles, and it’s just as addictive as both of them. iOS | Android

As the name implies, PhotoScan lets you scan photos and puts them right in to Google Photos. It’s easier to use than one of those old negative scanners, makes digitally storing the images less of a pain and works a lot better than just taking pictures of old pictures. With smart rotation, automatic cropping, glare-free scans and image enhancing, you’ll also have a lot less post processing work. iOS | Android

If you’re not familiar with Unsplash, it’s a website dedicated to free, high-resolution photos that are Creative Commons Zero licensed, which means you can use them for whatever you want. Background serves up the best photos from Unsplash right to your phone screen so you can easily keep your background cool and current. iOS

If you’re on Android and interested in minimalist wallpapers that skew towards the pop culture side of life, you want Minimalistic Wallpaper. The cloud based wallpaper app combines a huge collection of high quality material design wallpapers available in full HD or quad HD with a platform for designers to release and promote new creations. From Star Wars and Batman, to Breaking Bad and Big Bang Theory, Minimalistic Wallpaper makes it easy to find your next home screen, lock screen or both. Android